Chapter 5
"Are you serious?" Admiral Gerrel said in response to the Prime minister's declaration.
"Admiral Gerrel, I've told you of our recent history. The atrocity of war has left our planet at a fraction of it's original population. Ten percent of the human population survived that war, even if the proportions were reversed and ninety percent had lived, it's still a staggering cost to have paid. We never recovered either, either by choice or by circumstance our population is stable now at about 1.2 billion, and that's a fraction of what our planet can support. We have an abundance of resources at our disposal and it would be literally criminal of us not to share them." Shepard explained.
"May we have a moment, Prime Minister?" Admiral Gerrel asked,.
"Of Course, we'll be right outside." With that , Prime Minister Shepard and Admiral Hackett left the room and closed the door.
"I've got half a mind to park the Mayhem right outside of this "citadel" and start firing mass accelerator rounds until someone comes out to explain the treatment of these people." Hackett growled as he withdrew a cigarette from a container and lit it.
"I've got half a mind to authorize it." Hannah added, shaking her head and politely declining a cigarette offered by Hackett. "I can't believe them, trillions of credits in their discretionary budget, gathered from taxes on all citizens including the few Quarian foolish enough to have decided to live on their stations and planets and they can't bothered to help."
"One thing I am going to request, Hannah, is that we forestall any contact with this citadel until the next battlecruiser and another round of frigates come back from shakedown, I was up all night reading about this citadel council and when they find out not only are we helping the Quarians but we also share our society with an AI and have developed drive and reactor technology that puts their eezo cores to shame, they're going to come gunning for us.
"Yes, I've passed along my notes to Speaker Reid. They're discussing it in a closed senate session right now. I can expect you'll be christening a few more battlecruisers and quite a few more frigates and cruisers in the coming years." She said. "I hate the idea of war, but we've been preparing for the possibility since we found Charon." She said.
"Agreed. Let's worry about it later though." Steven said "I can't wait to talk to Gerrel after this summit, the Quarians military structure is fascinating. Did you know there are no specialists onboard a Quarian ship? Each crewmember crosstrains in everything from maintenance and cooking to command and medical detail! Each crewmate no matter how old or young is given command of the ship for two days in a year so that they keep their skills sharp. I wonder how we could go about adapting our training to match." He said.
"Nerd." Hannah smiled while playfully insulting her colleague. Steven carefully looked around to make sure nobody was watching then stood at attention facing Hannah and stuck his tongue out at her. She laughed so hard she snorted, then clasped her hands over her mouth and look horrified. "Don't you dare tell anyone I did that." she said.
She was spared Hackett's insufferable gloating when Admiral Gerrel indicated that they were ready to continue. They all resumed their seats and began refilling their drinks.
"Have you come to a consensus?" Hannah asked. The Admirals responded by standing and then walking over to the prime minister. She looked at them confused, standing herself, and was shocked to see the admirals lower themselves to their knees.
"Prime Minsiter Shepard. Our people we're on the verge of extinction. Please, we beg of you." Admiral Gerrel said but she held up her hand to stop him, and stooped over, reaching under his elbow and helping him to his feet.
"Admiral Gerrel, you are our friends. Friends do not beg for help, they offer it, freely and happily, and accept it equally so. Prepare the sturdy vessels for a jump to Sol, the rest will be directed to docking bays. Forgive my presumption, Admiral, but my people are already preparing housing for yours." She smiled while saying. Admiral Tiga'Noran burst out crying again, and was helped back to her seat.
The reaction amongst the ships of the Flotilla was of joyous rapture. While some still planned to one day retake the home world, they all were in awe of the wondrous and beautiful gift they've been given. A new one. A world they were welcome to put roots down on, friends there to welcome the with open arms, a future for their children that didn't involve slowly withering and starving onboard a dying fleet of ancient starships.
Once the majority of the flotilla began jumping through the Arcturus relay on their journey to their new home, the remaining ones too fragile for such travel began docking and boarding the station. They were met by one of their own, a Quarian engineer who was part of an Alliance crew that accepted her without second thought, and were guided to their new homes.
"Your domiciles are down these roads, transportation is available for anyone with mobility problems, before week's end I'd like all of you to be checked out at our medical building over there so we can help with any health issues as well as monitor any effects from local gravity, food, and atmosphere. Humans and Quarians breathe, eat and drink a lot of the same things but you can never be too careful." Abby Jameson, one of the more personable member of Shepard's squad explained to another group disembarking. They were shocked when a Quarian couple struggled to wrestle what looked like a giant hamster ball onto a broken wagon-looking thing. Abby was about to inform them that pets would require a stay in quarantine when she realized the creature inside was not a pet, but a beautiful girl with pale lavender skin, black hair and three fingered hands. The child gazed around with curious eyes, taking in everything around them with a wild sense of curiosity.
"Excuse me, sir, if you can wait I can get a hover trolley over here that will be much safer than your wagon." Abby said to them. Startled, they jerked around and saw a kind looking woman, slightly shorter than a Quarian dressed in military fatigues and carrying a megaphone and PDA device.
"Uh, thank you that would be greatly appreciated." The male said, his wife fussing over the plastic enclosure to make sure there were no leaks.
"And who is this charming young lady?" She asked motioning towards the child.
"Ah she is Gia'Vun nar Tubek." He said.
"Oh my my grandmother's name is Gia! Well her full name is Gianna but we all call her Gia!" She gushed. "She's absolutely adorable, are there a lot of children on the Flotilla?" She continued
"Um, no, a child requires a lot of resources and a lot of time from the parents, those are critical onboard a quarian vessel, we actually won a lottery to have her!" The wife chimed in.
"Oh, well that won't be a problem any more. Not sure why we didn't expect Quarian children, but there are plenty of human kids on board, so this little cutie will have lots of friends to play with!" She said.
"Won't it be a problem, I mean, the bubble? Quarians don't get suits until they are adults because they are too expensive to have to replace all the time." She asked.
"Oh not at all, we have fabricators onboard that have been programmed with Quarian suit patterns and specifications. We could easily have her up and out of the bubble by the end of the day. Just ask your medical officer when they look you over. Oh shoot I should bump you guys up the list, we need to be checking on kids and the elderly first I'll go tell the Lieutenant. The hover cart is pretty simple, just push it, mass effect fields hold the cargo down on the top and the cart up from the ground, it automatically compensates for uneven terrain so don't worry about it tipping over ok bye!" she said in a hyperactive string. They were confused by the curious hyperactive soldier but thankful for her assistance nonetheless, as they started making their way towards the med center.
True to her word, Abby ran straight over to Lieutenant and informed her about the need to change the checkup priority. being the ranking officer in the sector authorized it immediately and was then assaulted by by a once again hyperactive tirade about how adorable Quarian children were.
"And she had these cute pointed little elf ears and her skin was light purple and her eyes oh god those eyes were so beautiful and I just wanted to pull her out of the bubble and hug her and."
"Jesus Jameson take it down a notch." said, laughing as she said it. The young Private blushed and composed herself "I'm sorry but she was the cutest little angel I've ever seen. God imagine in a few weeks this place is going to have kids, Human and Quarian running around playing tag it's gonna be great!" She nearly shouted.
"Oh, you met one of our children?" Tali asked as she walked past carrying a box full of discarded electronic gear. Most of it was retrieved from one of the quarian ships, Tali was working on adapting human tech to quarian ships so that the flotilla could bolster the alliance fleet.
"Yeah had this cute pointed little nose and these adorable elf ears and those eyes..." put a hand out to stop another light speed gush session "OK Jameson, go back to your post maybe there's more kids for you to meet." said.
"Oh right! OK!" she ran off to her station completely forgetting to salute on the way by. wasn't a stickler for formalities so she didn't even notice.
"Wow, that's something to think about. On a planet we won't have to enter the lottery to have children any more, and parents will be able to devote more time to them." Tali observed.
"Yeah I can't imagine what growing up on the fleet would be like." said
"It was hard. I barely knew my mother before she died, and my Father's an Admiral, he's always busy." She said
"Ah I feel you there, my father died when I was in high school and my mom's the damn Prime minister!" She said. "Don't tell her, I voted for the other guy." She stage whispered to Tali
"Jane Don't you dare tell me you voted for Miles." A stern, authoritative voice behind Tali bellowed, causing her to jump and spin around in fright.